AMD Neo CPU to go dual core soon

The AMD Neo chip is sort of, kind of, AMD’s answer to the Intel Atom CPU that has become so popular in netbooks. AMD isn’t really going after the cheap ultraportable market that Intel has virtually conquered. But the Neo is designed for larger, pricier machines that offer better graphics performance while still costing a lot less than a sub-4 pound notebook would have cost a few years ago.

The problem is that when it comes to everything other than graphics, the Neo doesn’t really outperform the Intel Atom CPU by a wide margin. In recent tests and reviews, the HP Pavilion dv2 (the first computer using a Neo CPU), scored well on graphics benchmarks, but was sluggish on other tests and got lackluster battery life.

But AMD may have an answer for some of those problems… in the form of a dual core Neo processor. AMD is expected to ship a dual core Athlon Neo for thin and light laptops by the end of the quarter, which means we could see them show up in computers as early as this summer. The original single core Neo chip doesn’t handle multitasking all that well when compared with Intel Atom N270/N280 processors that support hyperthreading. A dual core CPU will probably fare much better.

Posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009, 1:55 pm by Brad Linder

Randalll

I am no AMD apologist, but I will protest against that previous CPU comparison. While I'm certain that the new dual-core Neo would be superior at multitasking, the article posted at CNET was a poor comparison, and it is actually wrong, as the Neo has the best single-task performance, as well as besting the Nano (and possibly the Atom) in multi-tasking, because:

1. The DV2 is running Vista in those benchmarks, while the others are running XP. Vista is well known for having heftier requirements, which can reduce the Neo's results, especially multitasking.
2. The numbers for the iTunes and the multitasking test for the Nano and the Neo were pulled from another article:
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/hp-pavilion-dv2…
In this article, the same author, Dan Ackerman stated that the Neo bested the Nano in iTunes and in the multitasking test. In the CPU comparison, you can see that the numbers for the NC20 and the DV2 were swapped around, giving the NC20 the DV2's results in both iTunes and multi-tasking and viceversa. This confirms my suspicions that the data was accidentally swapped around for the later article on CPU comparison.
3. The Jalbum test showed the Neo beating the NC20. The Jalbum test was not pulled from the previous review, and might actually be correct. I am unsure of whether it is correct, but it should be, if it is to be congruent with the iTunes test.

Therefore, that CPU comparison must be redone. It was a poor comparison from the start (Vista vs. XP), and I can't trust these swapped numbers. If the numbers of the original article are to be correct, the Neo is about twice as fast in iTunes, and only 20% slower in the multasking test than the Atom, despite the addition of Vista.

Some of the difference in the battery life can be accounted by the bigger screen, although I suspect that the Atom's platform is far more power-efficient regardless.
oddone

Fantastic detective work there. Well done!
oddone

So…what is this thing relative to the consesus chip? Where does that go? I just don't follow AMD as closely as I should…
REMF

please please put this in a slim 11.6″ chassis with a flush-fitting 6-cell battery.
oddone

Fantastic detective work there. Well done!
oddone

So…what is this thing relative to the consesus chip? Where does that go? I just don't follow AMD as closely as I should…
REMF

please please put this in a slim 11.6″ chassis with a flush-fitting 6-cell battery.
Nilo

Sir! can you pls help me on my laptop? the problem is i wasworking with my office word and it hangs up 4 about 30 min. so, I shutdown then reopen but it was not open in steady when i try to power up it open but after a few seconds it was having a sound like a dvd rom is trying to read a cd but after a few seconds it shutoff completely and it would not open anymore. I try to take out the battery and reinstall it, the same things happen also the dvd rom but also the same.
The model of my laptop is NEO M54SR WITH AN INTEL DUAL CORE PROCESSOR AND 2GB DDR2667 MEMORY.

PLSSSS…. HELP IF ANY OF YOU EXPERIENCE THIS PROB…

AMD Neo CPU to go dual core soon

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